Caught fish monday and went back wed and same reaction only the lake had dropped a foot. Got some good spots when it rises up about 5 foot I do pretty good. But gibson is pretty skimpy and tough to fish for crappie.
How do the Crappie react at your lake when the water level rises so fast during the spawn? I caught some nice fish yesterday in less then 3' of water that was dry land two days ago. Today, lots more rain and lake came up another 3'. Fished the same area and found nothing but a bazillion dinks.
What gives? What is everyones take on High Water?
Reaper, Where Fish come to Fry
Caught fish monday and went back wed and same reaction only the lake had dropped a foot. Got some good spots when it rises up about 5 foot I do pretty good. But gibson is pretty skimpy and tough to fish for crappie.
Last time I saw a mouth like that it had a hook in it!
that's it? one response? you guys can do better than that.
Reaper, Where Fish come to Fry
on the rise you rise on the fall you fall
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Out here in the N.W. the crappie follow the water up. The spawning urge is so strong they deal with it. It does seems to have a negative effect on the smallmouth spawn.
I'm surprised that there have been so few responses to this post. I went back out on Oologah yesterday and fished Talala Creek. This is the same area that I had been catching some nice slabs Sunday through Wednesday. Then the rains came, and did they come. As in years past, the Corp shut the gates to make an attempt to prevent downstream flooding and allow the unchecked rivers to settle down a bit. Oologahs water level was just under 14' above normal yesterday. That's about a 12' rise from just 6 days earlier.
I was one of only two boats to launch in the area yesterday. I fished the same areas, shallow and deep, high and low. I caught 6 dinks for the day and a couple of dink channel cats. I worked a lot of flooded brush off deep areas, flooded brush in cuts, flooded brush in flats, drop offs (deep and shallow), slow trolled/fast trolled. Graph showed sporadic fish from 4' to 22'. The brush I fish at normal levels was too deep and didn't show fish.
What gives??
Last edited by Crappie Reaper; 05-04-2009 at 07:09 AM.
Reaper, Where Fish come to Fry
I know what you mean, Reaper, it's rained 4" this past weekend and it's looks ready to again. Some fellow was desperate to fish the Emory River the other day, he was fishing off a bridge with downriggers the water was so swift.
In the past four days, Ouachita has gained another 2.5 fow, with it being 7' over full pool. I have not been on the lake yet but will attack it like you have---I will move around until I find them...IF I find them.
Earlier, I just took off the float and fished deeper, just off the exposed brush that was producing for me a week earlier. I know they go to the new flooded timber and brush, but some stay put in their initial beds.
I don't have any set rules. Maybe some of the guides can chime in and give us a little help here.
If I can't locate spawning fish within two hours or so, I'll be tyin' on the bandits and RRs and begin trollin' for post-spawn fish in the nearest deeper water off the beds.
aj
I have always heard that you fish the "old" bank. You fish the first drop after the water gets up which would be the normal shoreline. If it stablizes while it is up high then i would fish up in the trees.
I wish I knew the answer to this question as well. We have the same problem here in NE KS. But they are dropping our lakes fast now, so I am afraid the fish are too scared to spawn as the eggs would be left on dry land.